Happening
by cbssoapsgirl
Summary: At Verna's funeral Liv tells Fitz she'll wait and he blows her off, even after she tells him something big. How will they all handle it?
1. Chapter 1

"Ms. Pope, you are definitely pregnant. The morning sickness and the emotional changes, that was the reason. I'll prescribe you some medication for the morning sickness."

"Thank you doctor. I'll set up an appointment soon."

Olivia drove down to the church for Verna's funeral. She stopped a couple times to get sick and continued on. When she got to the church, she went up to the front where Fitz was standing at.

"I'll wait for you."

Olivia stood quietly behind Fitz at Verna's funeral. She was ready to wait for him and start the life they would have together.

"Yeah… about that… don't."

"What?"

"Well you keep saying that my presidency should come first. After all, everything that you have done for me for my presidency… you don't want to waste all of that."

"Fitz… I have to tell you something."

"Everything that you've done for my presidency, what else is there to say?"

"I'm pregnant."

Fitz still looked away from her, keeping his back to her.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that for you, Olivia. I'm sure you'll figure something out, anything to save the presidency right?"

"Fitz, it's yours, of course it's yours. What's going on with you?"

"Why ruin everything that you've done for me to get me here?"

Olivia stood there and watched him walk away from her. When the music started she went to find a seat in the back. Liv listened through the funeral as Fitz gave his eulogy, still trying to figure out what happened that he was basically telling her to get an abortion.

Liv sat in the church after everyone had left still going over her options. She could get an abortion or she could keep the baby.

After a couple hours of sitting there, Liv figured out what she needed to do.


	2. Screaming

"So you're telling me that you told him you were pregnant and he completely just walked away?"

"Yes Abby, that's what just happened."

"But you're pregnant!"

"I am very well aware that I'm pregnant. Six weeks pregnant to be exact."

Abby got off of the couch across from Olivia and grabbed her purse heading toward the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To yell at the President. Where else would I be going?"

"Let it go, Abby. He doesn't want anything to do with me or this baby. I don't even know what I want to do with this baby yet."

"You don't know if you want to keep it?"

"I'm not sure yet. I could get an abortion. I could keep the baby or give it up for adoption. I don't know what to do, Abby!"

"Your mood swings are driving me crazy lately. You do have some time to make a decision. You're only six weeks pregnant."

"I know. I will keep thinking about it. I'm going to head to bed for a nap, you can stay around if you want."

Once Olivia was laying down in bed, Abby ran out of the apartment getting to the White House as fast as she could.

Abby showed her guest pass to the security guard going to the Oval.

"Ma'am you can't go in there!" his secretary called after her trying to get in the Oval.

Abby went passed her and slammed the door open to his office finding Fitz with Cyrus and several other people.

"Who the fuck do you think you are!" she yelled at him.

"Excuse you, I'm a bit busy here. How did you get onto the grounds anyway?" Fitz called back. Seeing that Abby wasn't going to back down, "would you excuse us please?" Fitz sent everyone in the room out still leaving Cyrus with him. "What the hell do you think you're doing coming in here, in the Oval Office, in the middle of the day, while I'm in a very important meeting?"

"I think you owe someone a very sincere apology."

"And who would I need to do that to?"

"Olivia, you ass hole! What is wrong with you? You get her pregnant and then you leave her alone at the funeral. You don't care that you knocked her up?"

"Wait," Cyrus jumped in between them, "Olivia is pregnant? Olivia Pope is pregnant?"

"Unless you know of another Olivia he's been banging, which really wouldn't surprise me."

"Enough! Yes, Cyrus, Olivia is pregnant. Who cares?"

"Really, Fitz?" Cyrus nearly screamed at him. "Who cares? You damn well better care. This could ruin everything. This could ruin your presidency."

"It's Olivia. This is nothing. She's probably getting an abortion anyway and it won't make any difference."

"Do something!" Abby shouted at him. "You pick up that damn phone and call her and tell her how sorry you are that you're a complete ass hole. And that you want to be there for her because she needs you. You got her pregnant and she needs help!"

"Olivia doesn't need any help, she's Olivia Pope. And I don't want anything to do with her. As a matter of fact, I hope I never see her again. I don't want her anywhere near me, this presidency, or this White House. You tell her that if she comes anywhere near here, I will have her arrested for treason."

Fitz slammed the door leaving Cyrus and Abby in the Oval alone.

"She's really pregnant?"

"Six weeks. She doesn't know what she wants to do yet. But I highly doubt she will get an abortion. She's already calling it her baby."

"I don't know what to do about this then. All I can do is protect him."


	3. Visit From Cy

"So is there any particular reason that you're standing at my door at almost midnight, Cyrus?"

"I heard a rumor and I had to come find out if it's true. So is it?"

"Is what?"

"Are you really pregnant?"

"Six weeks, yes. How did you find out?"

"That girl that works for you came to yell at Fitz today. She had a few things to say and none of them good. What are you going to do?"

"I haven't decided yet. What does it matter to you? He wants nothing to do with me. Or this baby. So again, what does it matter to you?"

"It's still his kid. So what do you think you'll do?"

Olivia sighed and leaned on the door frame. "I don't know. I want to go to bed though. So good night, Cyrus."

Olivia closed the door going back to her room to bed. She'd have to deal with Abby in the morning.

"Didn't I tell you not to talk to him?"

"He needs to do the right thing. He needs to do his part in this."

"He wants nothing to do with the baby or with me. I don't care either. He can go on with his life and I'll take care of the baby."

"So you have decided?"

"I did. I had time to think about it and I decided to keep the baby. Whatever he wants to do is fine with me. I just want to be able to be the best mother to this kid."

"You'll have us too. Harrison and Quinn and I will help with whatever you need. We'll be there for you and the baby."

"Thanks, I'll need it."


	4. Vacation

"There's your baby, Ms. Pope. And… it's a girl."

"ABBY SHE'S A GIRL!"

"She's a girl, Liv. That's great."

After the appointment, Olivia took Abby out to lunch with the rest of the gladiators.

"I know I've been rather emotional and all that lately. I'm really sorry about that. You guys have been great and you all should get away for a bit. So I planned a vacation for you guys. You all are going over to the Caribbean for a week."

"Liv, you don't have to…" Harrison started but she stopped him.

"You guys have been so helpful to me and I can't thank you all enough. But once she gets here, I'll need all the help I can get. And I don't want you all to get tired of me before she gets here."

"She?"

"Yeah, it's a girl. And I've already picked out a name for her."

"And you named her after me, right?" Abby smirked.

"Her name is Grace. Grace Adelaide Pope."

"It's about time you decided on a name!" Harrison told her. "You're only eight months pregnant."

"And it took you long enough to want to know if it's a girl or boy."

"I wanted to be surprised. But I just really wanted to know today."

When lunch was over, Olivia sent everyone to pack for their vacation while she went home to finish getting Grace's nursery.

"So what are you naming her?"

Olivia sat with Cyrus on the couch in her apartment eating her usual popcorn dinner.

"Grace. How's Ella?"

"She's great. James is enthralled with her. He sleeps in her room now… wants to make sure he hears her when she wakes up. I can hear her at the White House without the baby monitor. She's a very loud crier."

"How are things at the White House?"

"Busy as always. But I think that's not the question you wanted to ask."

"What are you talking about now?"

"You really want to know how Fitz is. So ask."

"I don't care how he is. He hates me. So why should I care?"

"He did father Grace."

"That's about as far as it goes. He has nothing to do with Grace. And he won't for her whole life if I can help it. Grace is my daughter and I'm the only parent she needs. She'll have Huck and Harrison as a male figure in her life."

"But that's not her father."

"And Ella's mother?"

"That's different."

"How is that different? Ella has two fathers. What's the difference if Grace has one mother. Ella has me. That's all that anyone needs. We are more than enough for these two girls."

"I don't disagree. We'll be enough for Grace. So much that she won't know what to do. Get some sleep kiddo, you look exhausted. I'll come by tomorrow."

Olivia let Cyrus out, locking the door behind him and going to bed.


	5. Labor

"Sir, you really want to take this call."

Charlotte interrupted the meeting in the Oval.

"Just take a message, Charlotte," Fitz told her returning to his meeting.

"I'm sorry Mr. President. I meant Mr. Beene. Sir, she's been calling every five minutes. I really think you want to take this. She's on line two."

Cyrus left the chair in the meeting and took Fitz's phone. "This is Cyrus…"

"Holy shit, it hurts so much! Cyrus! You have got to help me."

"Olivia? What's wrong, what happened?"

"My water broke! Shit it hurts! Cyrus do something!"

"Get to the hospital. Liv, I'll meet you there soon. Call Abby to drive you."

"THAT'S WHY I CALLED YOU! She's on vacation in the Caribbean! HELP ME DAMN IT!"

"Okay, okay, relax, I'm on my way. Just keep breathing and I'll be there in a few minutes."

Cyrus hung up leaving the meeting with Fitz going after him.

"What's going on?" Fitz called after him.

"I've got to get Olivia to the hospital. What the hell am I telling you for? I'm wasting time."

Cyrus ran down the hallway with his agents to the car out back. Within minutes Cyrus arrived to take Olivia to the hospital.

"GET ME THE DRUGS!" she screamed coming into the emergency room.

"We're going to try Ms. Pope. How long have you been having contractions?" a nurse asked her wheeling her to the elevator.

"A few hours. Maybe seven?"

"SEVEN! Why didn't you call me before!"

"I tried! GET ME DRUGS NOW DAMN IT!"

The nurse called in the doctor taking a quick look at Liv. "Ms. Pope, I'm so sorry, it's too late for drugs. We're going to get you ready and you're going to push. But I need you to hold off on pushing for just a couple minutes. We're going to get you into the bed and as comfortable and possible."

"I WANT THE EPIDURAL NOW!"

"Liv, it's too late. You'll have to do it without."

"No! Not without! Cyrus please, drugs, now!"

Cyrus shrugged off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves taking her hand while they got her set up.

"You can do this, Liv. It's you and me okay. We can do this together. Grace is coming and it's going to be now. You can do this."

"I don't know if I can," she cried from the pain.

"Hey, Olivia Pope doesn't believe in I don't know. You can do this and you'll be just fine. We can do this. We're going to…"

"Ready to go, Ms. Pope? It's time to push," the doctor told her.

"Okay. Cyrus, it's so painful!"

"I know. Just push, Liv. You've got this. Come on first push."

Olivia did her first push and waited for the second time. Then the third. Once she got up to the tenth push she stopped.

"Olivia, just one more push and she'll be here," the doctor told her.

"No, I'm done. I'm done. I can't do this anymore."

Cyrus pulled her chin to look at him. "You can and you will do this. You need one more push and Grace will be here. You're almost done. I promise you can rest after that and I'll get you a big bottle of wine. You just need to push again."

"One more push and then I'm done!"

"That's it, Liv. She's almost here."

Olivia gave two more pushes when she heard her daughter scream. She watched the doctor pull Grace out and take her to get cleaned up.

"You did a great job, Liv! She's beautiful."

Cyrus helped Olivia with the rest of her delivery and went to check on Grace.

"So what does she weigh? She's healthy right? Grace is okay?"

"Grace is perfect. She's 7 pounds and 4 ounces, 15 inches long. She's beautiful. You did an amazing job."

Cyrus brought Grace over to Liv.

"Well Grace, it's you and me baby."


	6. Crying Baby

"Gracie, please! Stop crying please," Liv yelled at her three-week old daughter. She'd been crying for several hours from her crib in her nursery.

Abby came in closing the door behind her softly and going to the nursery. After ten minutes Abby came out to the living room.

"She's asleep."

"Thank you!"

"How's our clients?"

"Clients are fine. Everything is fine. How are you? Have you slept yet?"

"Not today. I can't get her to sleep. Why does she hate me!"

"Liv, Grace doesn't hate you. She's just a baby. You have to be patient with her. I'll stay in the guest room for the night, you go get some sleep."

In the morning, Liv finished Grace's morning feeding and went back to bed since she didn't sleep well the night before. With it being Saturday, Cyrus took the morning shift deciding to take Grace for a walk with Ella in the park.

"Sir, it's an emergency," his agent handed him the cell phone and continued to walk.

"What is it?"

"It's Fitz, I need you back here. They are planning to bomb us. Korea is threatening to bomb us. Come back here so we can strategize."

Cyrus and the agents took Ella and Grace to the White House with him heading towards the Oval.

"What information do we have? Do we know where the threats came from?" The men in the Oval looked strangely at him coming in with two babies. "Charlotte, please take them while we discuss."

"North Korean dictator sent a message. It's all over CNN. He wants the Korean prisoner we have in Guantanamo released. In exchange, they won't set off a bomb in San Francisco," the homeland security told them.

"Do we even know if it's a real threat?" Fitz pitched in.

"We aren't ready to take that risk. He could be lying but no one really knows for sure. We do have a prisoner there that is Korean. But we don't have any connection to him being from North Korea, only South."

"So we might be being played."

"Either way, sir. We aren't willing to risk it."

"Ok. Set up a conference call with the dictator. See if we can get a negotiation started."

Cyrus went out to the hallway getting the girls and taking them to his office while everything was being prepared.

After a couple hours, Fitz came into his office while Cyrus was giving Grace her bottle.

"Two kids? Isn't that a bit more than you bargained for with James?"

"Funny, you are not."

"So who is this one?"

"You know who she is, Fitzgerald. You should go get ready for the call."

"That's already happened. Everything has been taken care of. The one that we have in our custody is staying there and there won't be any explosions."

"And that's possible how?"

"North Korea has been invaded by the South and they have their hands a bit full. And the dictator has been shot apparently. So now that that's taken care of. Who is this beautiful girl you're feeding?"

"This is Grace."

"She's very beautiful. Can I take her?"

Without thinking, Cyrus handed her to him while he went to check on Ella on the other side of the room. He watched Fitz make faces at Grace in his arms while he rocked her back in forth to stop her fussing.

"Whose daughter is she?" Fitz asked keeping his eyes on her.

"Just a friend's. I take her sometimes."

"How old are you?"

"She's a month tomorrow."

"You're a good size girl for a month. Mommy must be feeding you right. You are so adorable. And I bet your daddy just spoils you rotten."

"She doesn't have one."

"Doesn't have one what?"

"A father, Fitz. She doesn't have one. Grace doesn't have one."

"How could someone like you not have one? You're amazing, Gracie. I bet Cyrus will be a great fill in daddy. He's so good with Karen and Jerry and Teddy."

"Fitz… you need to stop."

"He says stop. But there's nothing to stop is there Grace?... No not at all."

Cyrus stepped over to them and took Grace back to the double stroller he had brought in.

"What's the matter with you?"

"Nothing, I need to get Grace and Ella back. It's nearly their bedtime."

"Well you sound like a dad."

"I kinda am."


	7. Hanging With Grace

Cyrus ran down the stairs to answer the door the next Saturday to make the person ringing the doorbell stop.

"Would you please!... Mr. President, what are you doing here?"

"I needed to get out of the house. And I wanted to see my goddaughter. Is she here?"

"Yes but be quiet, both Ella and Grace are asleep."

"Grace is too?"

"Yes, they're in the nursery. Keep your voice down."

Fitz jogged up the stairs heading to the nursery laying his eyes on both of the girls in the crib side by side. After a minute of watching them sleep Grace started to wake up, cooing when she saw him above her.

"Hey little angel," he spoke reaching down and picking her up. "Are you hungry?... I bet… let's get you something to eat."

Fitz carried her downstairs to the kitchen fixing her a bottle and sitting down at the table.

For several weeks Fitz came over to Cyrus's house so he could see Ella and Grace, but more Grace. After a couple months of him coming around every weekend, Grace had grown to settle down every time he came into her sight.

"Fitz, you need to stop," Cyrus yelled when he finally had enough of Fitz coming in to see Grace.

"Stop what exactly?"

"You have to stop coming around for her. She needs to learn to be without you."

"What's the big deal? She's a baby. What harm is it doing?"

"She needs to survive without you. Her mother doesn't want you around her. You are going to get me into deep shit if you keep coming to see her."

"What? Is she a democrat?"

"Worse than that. You just need to go. I can't have you around Grace anymore. Please just understand that."

"I demand to know why I can't be around her."

"Because you can't!"

"Says who?"

"Says her mother!"

"And who is her mother? Anyone in the world would be glad if their kid meets the president, let alone is fed by him. So again, who is it harming if I feed Grace, or if I am anywhere near her?"

"BECAUSE SHE'S OLIVIA'S DAUGHTER!"


	8. Fitz Is A Father

"She's Olivia's daughter."

Fitz stared at Grace finally realizing how much she looked like Olivia but had his eyes.

"It finally makes sense," Fitz whispered to her but Cyrus heard.

"What does?"

"Since I first saw her, I can't think about anything else. She's all I can think about. I want to know who she's with all the time, who's taking care of her, when she was last fed. How soon can I get to her? It's like she's got me wrapped around her finger. And I've been spoiling her."

"Believe me I know; you keep giving her toys."

"She's Olivia's daughter. Which means…"

"Grace is your daughter too." Cyrus watched Fitz stare at Grace for several minutes. "What are you thinking about? Don't do anything stupid."

"Not doing anything stupid, Cy. I'm doing something smart."

Fitz ran out of the room leaving with his agents back to the White House.

"I want my attorney down here now." After ten minutes, Fitz's family attorney was at the gate. "I want you to sue her for custody of Grace."


	9. Custody Of Grace

"What the hell is this! He's never even seen Grace!"

Olivia yelled at Cyrus in the living room of her apartment when he came to pick up Grace for the afternoon. She had just been served papers a few minutes before he got there.

"Actually…"

"You better have not let him anywhere near my daughter. I swear to God Cyrus; I will destroy you."

"He's seen her, held her, fed her, everything. He didn't know that Grace was yours until last weekend. She's calm around him. And she's…"

"He wanted absolutely nothing to do with anything for her or me and now he wants custody! He's not getting custody of her and he's not getting any visitation for her. Not while I'm alive!"

"Liv, you are going to have to calm down. I will talk to him and find out what he's thinking. I don't know what the hell he's doing. Just relax and calm down. I'll call James to come over with Ella while I go to the White House."

"You talk sense into that son of a bitch and make him realize who the hell he's messing with. I will go for his jugular and I will not stop until he's dead."

"Okay well that won't be necessary. I'll make sure of it."

Cyrus left her with Grace heading to the White House while he called James. When he got to the White House, he ran up to the Residence finding him sitting at the dining room table.

"Are you crazy!"

"Where's Grace?"

"That's what we will be discussing. Are you out of your mind? Are you completely insane!"

"Not as far as I'm aware."

"You cannot sue her for custody of Grace. You are the President of the United States. You cannot… The country can't know that Grace is your daughter. Your morals are a highlight of the party. The country can't know that you had an affair with anyone. Let alone got her pregnant."

Fitz closed the book her was looking at and stared at him. "She's my daughter too."

"You didn't want anything to do with Olivia when she told you she was pregnant. You told her she wasn't worth the time or the effort. You got her pregnant and then you ditched. So, Grace isn't your daughter. She's Olivia's daughter because you gave up the rights to her not only when you told her to get lost but also when you decided to run for President. You're on a pedestal and the country, the world needs to be able to know that you have morals and abide by them."

"All I want be able to do is see my daughter. Grace is also my daughter and I don't care if this destroys my presidency or not. She is more important to me than this job."

"You know she will destroy you. Olivia will cut off your balls and force them down your throat."

"I will risk it. I will be in Grace's life. She's my daughter!"

"And you are missing something for you to think about."

"And that's?"

"Olivia is her mother. Grace is Olivia Pope's daughter. You are going to be forever tied to her. You better work something out with her. Because I can guarantee that you will not be getting custody of Grace. If you're lucky, you might get visitation, but I doubt it."

"I think she'll see reason."

Annoyed, Cyrus turned around leaving going back to Olivia's apartment.

"So he's seriously insane right? He's out of his mind!"

"He wants to be in her life. He thought you would have had an abortion since you told him you weren't ready for kids."

"That was then, it's different when you are actually pregnant."

"Well he thought you did. Either way. He wants to be in Grace's life. Fitz wants to be her father."

"And I want to be able to forget that I ever met him. So let's see who gets what they want first."

"Liv…"

"Don't Liv me. He's not going to be anywhere near Grace ever again."


	10. Demand

"Why don't you have Grace?"

"That little stunt you pulled with the custody crap made her ensure that no one is taking Grace out of her sight. Abby, Harrison, Huck and I are not allowed to take her anywhere without Olivia going with. So congratulations. You have screwed yourself over."

Cyrus stood in the Residence with Fitz playing with Teddy in the living room. He'd just tried for two hours to convince Olivia that Grace was completely safe with him but she still refused to let him take her.

"So do you have any other brilliant plans to attempt to see Grace?"

"I could go over there and talk to her."

"And die. She will kill you for even coming within a mile of her."

"Grace is my daughter too."

"I was talking about Olivia."

"Then what am I supposed to do."

"Beg for mercy, I suppose. Call her and see if you can set up a time to see her. Let her hang up on you. I don't know, figure something out."

Fitz picked up the phone and called for his attorney to talk to a judge.

"What did you just do?"

"My lawyer is calling the judge to get an emergency injunction for me to have Grace."

"You have lost your damn mind!"

"What if it was Ella? What if James took off with Ella and refused to let you see her?"

"That's not fair. I am not the one who told her to get an abortion. You brought this on yourself."

"I now I screwed up."

"Badly."

"Very very badly. But I never thought she was actually pregnant. I thought it was an attempt to keep me or something."

"SHE IS NOT MELLIE!"

"I know that."

"Then how can you say that about her! She's spent the past year and a half caring for Grace without any help from you. Grace has been perfectly fine. She doesn't need you to come in and interfere with her life at this point."

"Cyrus, she is my daughter and I will be there to take care of her for the rest of her life. Just because Olivia decided to have her by herself…"

"You decided that for her. She decided that she wanted you to be a part of Grace's life and you decided not to be."

"Still…"

"No not still. Olivia didn't hide the baby from you, you've known she was pregnant all along. You knew she was going to keep the baby and you did nothing about it. She didn't run away and pretend that she wasn't pregnant then come back afterwards. Olivia told you flat out that she was pregnant, you brought this on yourself."

"So what now?"

"That's you move, not mine."

Olivia sat on the bed in her room feeding Grace when the doorbell rang.

"Can I help you?"

"Olivia Pope?"

"Yes?"

"You've been served."

Olivia slammed the door in the man's face holding Grace in her arms. She looked it over and read every single word on the page before she called Cyrus.

"Liv?"

"You tell that bastard that if he wants a war he'll get one."

"What now?"

"I have 48 hours to get Grace to the White House for a 24-hour visitation with him or I am going to jail."

"He did what?"

"Lost his damn mind!"

"I'll take care of this. Just relax and take care of Grace."

Olivia hung up and went back to the bedroom laying down with Grace on the bed.

"Olivia?"

"Yup, Fitzgerald, you are dead. She's coming for your blood, every last ounce."

"She got the demand?"

"Yes, you are very dead."

"What can I do to talk you out of this? She's going to fight you."

"I know."

Once Grace fell asleep Olivia picked up her phone and called Abby.

"Start a kill folder on Fitz."


	11. Visitation

"I don't want her anywhere near Grace."

Cyrus came to pick up Grace for Fitz's visitation but she refused to let Grace out of her arms.

"Grace is going to the White House; Mellie is going to be there but Fitz has everything cleared for tomorrow."

"Then she's not going, I will go to jail for that. That woman is toxic and I don't need the whole world knowing that Grace is biologically related to him. She doesn't even need to know that Grace exists to him."

"Liv, she's going to know."

"Change in plans then. Grace and I are leaving. We'll go somewhere else."

"You know I can't let you do that. And even if you did, he'd have everyone out there looking for you and taking her back."

"Fine, call him and find out if he'll negotiate."

"You don't have an upper hand here."

"I have Grace. And all his dirty secrets."

"Olivia…"

"If he wants to see her, he'll negotiate."

Cyrus called Fitz and got him to agree to Olivia's conditions.

After a couple hours Cyrus showed up with Grace and Olivia at Camp David. Olivia set up some of Grace's toys in the main room of the main cabin on the grounds. She heard the car come up laid Grace on the floor to play.

"Remember Cyrus, call every half hour. I do her bedtime feedings…"

"Absolutely no Mellie, any time a phone call comes in I bring her to you…"

"And she has to have her blanket to sleep, only on her stomach," Fitz started walking into the room, "don't give her a pacifier. No TV. You'll get her back one hour before her bedtime tomorrow. I know the damn rules."

Olivia leaned down and kissed her daughter taking her bags over to the door. "Cyrus, don't you dare leave her alone with him."

"Seriously Olivia?" Fitz yelled at her.

Hearing him yell, Grace started to cry loudly. Liv ran back and picked her up.

"I knew this was a bad idea. Cyrus, I told you…"

"She'll be fine." Cyrus took Grace from her. "Go over and enjoy the night off. I've got her taken care of."

Olivia kissed her forehead again and left the cabin before she had to talk to Fitz.

"I can't believe she has all these rules."

"Fitz, she's never let Grace out of her sight for more than two hours. So it's probably killing her that you get her overnight. And I don't blame her. You need to have some sympathy towards her. Grace only knows her."

"Well she should know me, I'm her father."

"Exactly, you aren't her dad."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"You're not around her. She doesn't know you. So you need to get to know her. Here," Cyrus handed her to him. "Get to know your daughter."

Fitz sat on the floor with Grace playing with her toys for several hours. Every half hour, as directed, Cyrus called and gave Olivia an update. Before her bedtime, Cyrus took Grace over to Olivia's cabin for her feeding.

After an hour, Cyrus called Olivia.

"She's still crying. Can you please come over and make her stop? She's driving me crazy."

Olivia came running over to the cabin running up to the bedroom where Grace was, taking her from Fitz and sitting down in the rocking chair singing to her. Fitz left the room letting her get Grace to sleep. He went downstairs to sit with Cyrus in the kitchen.

"Gracie, time to sleep baby girl. I know he seems like a stranger but he isn't really. He's your father but he's trying to be your daddy. He's… I don't know Gracie; he's trying I guess. I wish he was there before. I don't know baby girl, he's great and everything. And he's great with his kids but I… I'm so sorry baby. I don't know if he ever wanted you. But you princess, you have so many people that love you and want to be there for you. Your daddy… he's just not ready to be a real father to you. And that's alright, because you and me will be just fine. You and me are perfectly fine. You just give him a chance baby girl, and if he ever does anything to hurt you, I promise to let the fire burn. But just know angel, I'm always here for you. Even when Fitz turns his back on you, baby, I'm here. He won't love me again angel, but I know that he loves you no matter what. And that's all I care about Gracie. If he loves you that's just fine. He can hate me all he wants. Either way, I got you, Grace Adelaide."

While Olivia rocked her daughter to sleep, Fitz and Cyrus sat downstairs listening to her on the baby monitor.


	12. Running Away

"I think I screwed up."

Cyrus put his brief down in the Oval and looked up at Fitz at the desk.

"What have you done this time?"

"I had my attorney send Olivia papers for full custody of Grace."

Cyrus stared at him blankly, unsure if he really just heard what he said. "I think you said something wrong."

"After last weekend when I had Grace even with Olivia in the next cabin… I can't let her grow up without me. I don't want to spend the next eighteen years hearing from you or someone else how Grace is. I want to be there for her. And after hearing what Olivia said to her over the monitor, I very highly doubt that she will let me ever see her again. She doesn't want Grace hurt. I don't either. I want to be part of her life."

"So sending her a petition for full custody is your answer to fixing this?"

"That's what my attorney said to do." Cyrus picked up his coat and ran towards the door. "Where are you going?"

"To make sure Olivia is still in the country."

Liv flipped through the petition Fitz had sent her for ten minutes before packing her bag and Grace's and running down to her car with Grace in her car seat.

"He isn't taking her away from me," Olivia told Huck on the phone while she drove.

"I won't let him, Liv. You and Grace are going to be okay. I swear I won't let him touch her again," Huck told her. He gave her an address to go to and wait.

While she drove she got several calls from Cyrus and Abby asking where she was and if she was okay but she let it go to voicemail.

"I agree, you really screwed this one up."

"I told you."

"She's gone. And so is Grace. Why would you send her that?"

"Isn't that kidnapping?"

"Considering you don't have anything but name on her, and not even that really, I don't think it is. You may be her biological father but you've only seen her a few times. Your name isn't on her birth certificate or known to the public that you are her father. So Olivia didn't kidnap her. At least, that's the way that the public will see it."

"So she can just take off with her and not say anything to me?"

"You would have done the same thing if you were her."

"Shit…" Fitz threw everything off his desk slamming himself into his chair. "Now what the hell do I do?"

"Figure something out. And you better do it quick… and legally. She'll use that against you if you are going to try and get even partial custody of Grace."

Olivia sat with Grace at the side of the road just outside D.C. wondering what to do. If she did run, Fitz would have everyone out looking for her just to get Grace back. If she stayed, he'd fight her with everything he had to take Grace away from her. Liv didn't want to put Grace in the middle of the fight but she was the reason for it. Without Grace, she'd be perfectly fine without Fitz. Olivia thought about saying that Grace wasn't his but Fitz would demand a paternity test and prove that she was his. Liv could keep hearing Abby's voice in the back of her mind saying the words that she'd told her since she met: Gladiators don't get to run. Without really thinking about it, Olivia turned around and went home.

When she got to the parking garage at her apartment, she pulled out her phone and called Cyrus.

"Liv?"

"You tell him that he just started a war."

Cyrus put his phone down on the couch next to him across from Fitz.

"And?"

He stared at Fitz for a minute before saying anything.

"This might turn into a blood bath."


	13. Wanting A Visit

_"I'll get her," Fitz whispered in Olivia's ear in bed and kissed her cheek before getting up and going to Grace's room. He picked her up out of her crib after making a bottle for her and sat in the rocking chair in her yellow nursery in the house they lived in together in Vermont feeding her. "Don't wake mama, Gracie."_

 _After a while, Gracie fell back asleep in his arms and he put her into her crib and went back to bed with Olivia._

 _"She okay?"_

 _"Perfect, just hungry. Go back to sleep sweet baby."_

 _"It's hard to sleep without you. Well, I'm back now."_

 _"Good. I hate waking up without you."_

 _"Me too. But I'm back, no need to wake up, Livie."_

 _He rubbed circles across her arm to help her go to sleep like he normally did and watched her fade to sleep._

Sitting in his office, daydreaming about life with Olivia and Grace, Fitz fought with himself to go over to Olivia's and see her and Grace. He knew he'd be a very unwelcome guest but he wanted to see his daughter. He hadn't seen either of them in three weeks. Any communication had to go between their lawyers. Cyrus took a step out of their issues to deal with the crises that had arose since then.

"Olivia, please, I'm only asking for two hours," Cyrus begged in her office. "He needs to see her."

"I need these ridiculous custody papers to go away. Let's see who gets what they want first."

"Two hours, Liv, please. I'm running the country by myself. He'll be better after he sees her. Just let me take Grace to see him for a couple hours and I swear I will bring her back here myself."

"I said no, Cyrus. I don't care about what he needs. Or wants for that matter. It's his problem, he caused all of this."

"Fitz just wants to see his daughter. Just give him an inch."

"So he can take a mile? The answer is no. Grace stays with me, end of story."

"Can I bring him here?"

"So he can cause a problem while my clients are here? Absolutely not. He's not going to see Grace."

"You aren't being fair."

"HE TOLD ME TO GET AN ABORTION! I DO NOT HAVE TO BE FAIR!"

"He didn't know what he was saying. He was in shock. He got bad news."

"So did I, Verna died."

"No, he knows about Defiance."

"Bull shit."

"He does. He didn't trust me for the longest time. But he knows about Defiance and that's why he was so upset."

"I still don't care, Cyrus."

"Are you really willing to let Grace grow up thinking that her father didn't want her?"

"The truth hurts. I will protect her for as long as I can. And I'll be there when she does find out about him. And hopefully, she will understand why I did it."

"Do you even understand why you are doing it?"

"If he gets custody of Grace, she ends up with nannies and boarding schools and Mellie and no father. He sees Karen and Jerry on the holidays, and that's if the world doesn't fall apart. At least if she's with me she has a mother. I might not be the best but I am still her mother. I will give her all the attention that she need and anything else she needs."


	14. Seeing Vermont

"I give up."

"What?"

"I can't do this anymore, I give up."

Fitz sat in the Residence with Cyrus going through paperwork.

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't have the energy to do this anymore. I can't keep fighting everyone. It's too much. I quit."

"You need to just relax and stop drinking because that's the liquor talking."

"I haven't been drinking, Cyrus. I just can't keep trying to fight for Grace against Olivia and get Mellie moved out of the White House before the divorce is final. And running the country is exhausting. I left my resignation papers in the top drawer in the desk in the Oval."

"Are you insane?"

"Cyrus…"

"Do you know what it took for us to get you here? How much we have sacrificed for you?"

"What about my kids? Karen and Jerry, I never get to see them. And Grace. It's almost her first birthday and I've seen her three times. And that was seven months ago! This isn't fair."

"This job isn't meant to fair. It's meant to be done by someone who can take control and show no fear."

"I've been shot in the head, Cyrus! How else is there fear there?"

Cyrus tossed down the papers and left the White House. Fitz called for his agents to get Marine One ready to go and to pick up Olivia and Grace.

Olivia sat in her office reading over her clients' financial records when Tom and Daniel came into her office.

"Hell no," she told them when she saw them come in.

"It's not a request ma'am. He's demanding this time. Where's Grace?"

"None of your concern. Let me make a call."

The agents stepped out of the office while Olivia called Abby and told her to keep Grace until she came to pick her up.

"Alright, let's go."

Olivia got on Marine One, mostly against her will, and let the pilot fly her to wherever she was going.

Getting off on the lawn she saw Fitz standing outside a house.

"Is there a reason you had me kidnapped and brought to the middle of nowhere?"

Fitz turned around and went inside where he had started a fire in the fire place. "I think it's time that we talk."

"We talk."

"Not through our lawyers."

"Well that's that only way I'm talking."

"Then just listen."

Olivia looked around the house seeing that it was a house that someone might live in but only in a certain time of year. "What is this?"

"Your house."

"What?"

"It's your house, our house. I had it built last year before Verna died. I wanted you to be able to see it."

"Why?"

"This was our dream. At least, I thought it was. Living in Vermont with our kids. I had it built for us so that when I was done with the Presidency, we could be together and continue our lives the way we planned."

"And you didn't tell me this why?"

"I was shot before I could bring you here. I wanted to take the weekend off and come here with you but things were crazy and then I was shot."

"So that's why I'm here? To be tortured for the past?"

"No, not at all. I'm resigning in two days."

Olivia stared at him for a minute judging if he was actually serious.

"That's not funny."

"It's not meant to be."

"You're going to resign. Why exactly?"

"I can't fight with you anymore, and with Mellie, and run the country. I can't do everything no matter how much I want to. It'll be better after I resign and the divorce is final."

"So you divorce her and resign and take Grace away."

"Don't get me wrong, I want to see Grace. I want to be part of her life. I want to be her dad. I missed so much already. I have made so many mistakes and I can't make up for them all but I'm going to try."

"You're not taking Grace. That's it. I will not let you take my daughter away from me."

"I don't want to take her away from you. I want shared custody. Obviously, we won't be together but we are going to have to share Grace."

"I'm not sharing my daughter. Especially with you. You are the one who told me to get rid of her. You never wanted her. Why should I even let you in the same room with her?"

"I didn't know you were really pregnant. How am I supposed to know you weren't making it up so we could still be together?"

"Do you really believe I would stoop that low? I told you I would wait for you like you wanted and then you told me to get rid of our daughter. The answer is no. I'm not going to get rid of her. I loved you so much that I wanted to keep our daughter. And that's what I'm doing because she is part of me and of you. So regardless of what you wanted to do, she is my daughter. I thought we would be raising Grace together but someone had other plans."

"My plan was to marry you and have kids with you. But you decided that I had to be President enough that you rigged an election."

"Defiance? That's why you're punishing Grace?"

"No, it's punishing you."

"Oh please, you're punishing her."

"No, you are, Olivia. You are the one who is refusing to let me see her. If you would just let me see her, she wouldn't be punished."

"Are you hearing yourself right now? Are you thinking about what you are saying or is this just random shit that comes flying out of your mouth?"

"Of course…"

"I don't think you are! Grace is not being punished by me. I'm being punished by you. You are not capable of being a real parent to her. You're the President. You aren't even a real father to your own children."

"Olivia, don't you dare…"

"Speak the truth? Oh, believe me, I dare. You let her send your children to the other side of the country for school. You see them at most 10 times a year. And Teddy, well it's only a matter of time before she ships him off to some random school in California. You're not there for them. Mellie isn't there for them. You don't even talk to them when they are in town, in the same house. You send them to school in California so they…"

"They are safer there! California is a safe place for them."

"Really? That's what you think?"

"It's what I know."

"Karen got drunk at a party two weeks ago and slipped her detail. She got high from pot and started throwing up. Jerry got into a fight with another kid because he was defending you and where you stood on immigration. The kid hit him so hard that he ended up going to the school nurse with a busted lip. But by all means, California is the best and safest place for them to be."

"How do you know all this?"

"I video chat with them. I text them, call them, visit them. There's nothing that they do that I don't know about."

Fitz threw himself back on the couch, officially irritated. "I don't know why I ever let Mellie put them in that school, I told her it was a bad idea."

"And you would have put Teddy and Grace right there with them. You are not accessible to them like a real father should be. You're not there for them. I'm there for Grace. And for Karen and Jerry. You are not taking Grace away from me."

"I'm going to resign."

"And that makes up for nothing. You need to fix the relationship you have with Karen and Jerry and Teddy before you can even think about being a parent to Grace."

"Grace is a baby. She'd get to know me more if you would just let me see her. I can build a relationship with a baby but it's going to take a lot of time to fix what I have with my other children."

"Then I guess you better start working on it."

Olivia sat across the room from him picking at her nail and staring at the fire. They sat in silence for what felt like forever but was probably only ten minutes. She wondered how fast she could get back to D.C., hopefully before it was time for Grace's bedtime. Liv could see him staring at her out of the corner of her eye. He wanted to keep the arguing going so they could be done but hearing her say how in touch she was with his children softened him.

"Why didn't the kids tell me that you talk to them?"

"They didn't want you to be mad. They knew what happened after Verna died, when you banished me from the White House and refused to talk to me again."

"So you told them?"

"I didn't tell them I was pregnant for several months. And the only reason they found out I was pregnant was because I had to fly over there for Karen's concert."

"Concert?"

"You and Mellie had to attend the correspondence dinner. I went to Karen's concert and Jerry's soccer game."

"No, I mean what kind of concert?"

"Her choir concert."

"I didn't know she was in choir."

"There's a lot you don't know about either of them. Jerry is great at soccer. And Karen loves to sing. They are both doing great in school. I've been to their parent teacher conferences."

"You aren't their parent."

"Do you honestly think I don't know that? Someone needed to be there for them and I was able to when you weren't. At least someone was able to be there for their games and concerts."

"You are Grace's mother."

"And don't ever forget that."

"I can't keep fighting you like this. Look, I just want to be in her life."

"I don't want you to be."

"She's my daughter too."

"By blood only."

"Therefore, I have rights. I will fight for her. I don't want to hurt her like I have Karen and Jerry. I want to make it right and let her know that I'm going to be here for her. Anytime that she needs me."

"No."

"Let's negotiate. No lawyers, no judge, just you and me, right here."

"There's no negotiating. You can't be a parent that she needs. At least not yet. Maybe… if after you're finished with your terms… we can discuss you being in her life."

"That's five years, if I'm reelected. And I'm not running for reelection and I'm resigning in two days."

"You are not resigning."

"That office wasn't meant to be mine."

"I worked my ass off for you in more ways than one. You are not resigning." Olivia gave him a death glare knowing that he would back down.

"Even if I don't resign or get reelected, that will be another year. I can't wait that long."

"I don't care how long it is. I don't care how long you have to wait to see her. That's not my problem. You try and take me to court for custody of her, you better damn well be prepared to be impeached. I will cast the ugliest light on you possible that everyone in the world will know your dirty little secret. I will make sure you feel the exact pain that I went through with you. Do NOT test me, Fitzgerald."

Fitz slowly moved to the edge of the couch keeping his distance with the coffee table between them.

"Did I really hurt you that much?"

Olivia turned her head to look at him unable to believe he could possibly be that dense.

"Hurting you was never my intention."

"Bull shit."

"Livie…"

"Don't lie to me. You and I both know that your true intention was to hurt me. I told you I was pregnant and you told me to get an abortion. Don't you dare try to tell me otherwise. Your only intention was to punish me. To hurt me. You wanted me to feel like a mistress and you damn well did. Congratulations."

Fitz moved over towards her, sitting on the couch beside her looking in her eyes. "Livie, I'm so sorry. I don't know why I did that. You didn't deserve that. And you didn't deserve me abandoning you when you were pregnant. I don't know… I want to make it up to you and Grace. I know I've screwed up, especially with you but I want to try to get back to what we were."

"This is just a tactic for you to get to see Grace."

"Yes and no. I do want to see Grace but I want things to be fixed between us. I know that's going to take a lot of work. But I'm going to fix it. I'm going to earn your trust back. You are not a mistress so stop thinking that right now. You and I are supposed to be together; we will get back to where we were before all of this shit happened."

"And how are we supposed to do that?"

Fitz picked up her hand and moved the ring around on her finger that he gave her three years before.

"You still wear it. So there's hope, isn't there?"

"I can't go back to the way things were before. I have to think about Grace."

"WE have to think about Grace. And she is going to be fine. She has you and me."

"Are you going to call off this custody bull shit?"

"I want to see her. If you will agree to letting me take Grace every other weekend and maybe sometimes during the week, then I will call off the custody order."

"She's only been away from me over night that one time. And the no Mellie rule still stands."

"We can set that up again. You and she can come here every other weekend. I won't have any Presidential crap to do since I'm resigning."

"I will not let you resign. It's not going to happen."

"Well, I'm not going to let Grace grow up without me."

"Compromise?"

"Such as?"

"Stay in office until the end of your first term. It's only another year. If you don't want to run for reelection that's fine but you have to finish your first term."

"And I get to see Grace whenever?"

"Every other weekend and once during the week."

"Twice during the week. And video chat every day."

"Deal."


	15. Author's Note

Hey everyone!

Sorry I've been MIA. You know how life gets. I'm out of internet for a while but get it when I come to work. I'll be this way for about another month but I just wanted to let all of you know this: the story isn't over.

When I can I'll post more chapters. But for now, enjoy the next three!

Love you all!


	16. Prisoner

"I'll be in the hallway if she needs anything," Olivia told Fitz as she handed Grace to him for his weekly visit.

"I'm taking the weekend off. Can you and Grace come to Camp David for the weekend?"

"I have too many things to do."

"So what if I just take her?"

"No. That's too far away for her to be without me."

"Cut the cord, Olivia. She has to go to school at some point."

"In four years she can go to school, until then she will be with me at all times."

"I am her father; you let Abby take her, and Cyrus."

"Only for a couple hours at a time. And don't start that crap with me. I'm not in the mood. You have two hours with her left. Enjoy them, I'll be in the hall."

Olivia sat outside the Oval letting Fitz have his time with Grace for the second time this week. Their agreement had been working out so far and they had been getting along but she didn't want Fitz taking Grace anywhere without her being there. While she waited, she was able to make several phone calls she needed to her team and clients getting things wrapped up for the day. Before Fitz was done with his visit, Olivia had arranged a surprise for him.

Liv knocked on the Oval door before she came in. Fitz was on the floor with Grace playing peek-a-boo with her and her blanket.

"Two hours of peek-a-boo can be tiring. Luckily it never gets old for her," Fitz smiled at his daughter, never missing her replica of Olivia's eyes.

"You are aware that she knows you are behind the blanket right? She's very smart."

Fitz sighed and let it go. "What about next weekend?"

"What?"

"To go to Camp David? I can clear my schedule next weekend."

"We both know that it would look suspicious as to why you are going to Camp David two weekends in a row."

"Olivia, please, give me an inch so we can work together to raise her."

"I'm not fighting with you right now. I'm just saying that it would look suspicious. Anyway I have something for you."

"Unless it's a weekend with Grace, I probably don't want it."

"It's the next best thing that I can do for you." Liv handed Fitz a computer and a key.

"What are you doing with my laptop?"

"I had Huck enhance it. Don't worry nothing was deleted or gone through. I could care less what you are doing online and all that. Huck set up the nursery cam to go to your laptop as well. You can watch Grace in her room any time that you want."

"And the key?"

"It's the key to the apartment. You can come over any time that you want to see Grace. I don't care when you want to, day or night. The guest room is set up for you if you do want to spend the night and she has a portable crib in the guest room if you want to take her in there with you. So long as you don't take her out of the apartment, you can come over whenever you can or want to."

"Olivia…"

"Look, I know I've being difficult with you not being able to see her in person all the time and that I want her with me every second of every day. But I'm trying, okay? I want you to be able to know her and her know you. That way when you are done with being President and all of this, you won't be a stranger to her. I'm trusting you not to break my trust with my daughter."

Fitz stood up and took Olivia's hand, leaving Grace on the floor. "It's great to know that you are trusting me with all of this. I promise that I won't break your trust."

"Don't make promises. You only break them," she told him bending over to get Grace.

"Liv…"

"Just don't okay? I don't need you to promise me anything. You can't keep your promises and I know you have no intention of keeping any promise you make to me. I'll set up the video chat for three tomorrow as usual."

Olivia left with Grace in her stroller going down the hallway and passing Cyrus heading towards the Oval.

"How was the visit?" Cyrus asked him setting down a file on his desk.

"Short. But I think I made progress with Olivia. She gave me a key to the apartment to see Grace whenever I want. But she isn't going to Camp David with me."

"But the key is a good sign. She's trusting you."

"I'm not so sure if she's trusting me or just trying to get out of going to Camp David with me. I'd take her to Vermont if she wanted."

"She doesn't want to go anywhere with you, Fitz. She's just wanting to stay in her comfort zone with Grace."

"And Camp David or Vermont isn't in her comfort zone?"

"Camp David is your territory. And the last time you and she were there together, she got pregnant. And Vermont, that's something that's totally out of the blue."

"But me going her apartment is in her comfort zone?"

"Exactly, she can kick you out whenever. When she's in Camp David or Vermont she has to wait for you to say that she can go."

"I hold her hostage."

"I wouldn't say that."

"It wasn't a question. I just realized why she's not comfortable with me having Grace alone. Grace is her bargaining chip."

"You lost me."

"I have her summoned to me and she comes. I take her places and hold her hostage until I get what I want. She's never had a say since I became President. That's why she doesn't trust me. I keep her prisoner."

"Wait a minute, Olivia Pope is no one's prisoner."

"But she is. Tell Tom and David that I want to be at Olivia's by 8."


	17. Apology

"I gave you a key," Olivia told him opening the door.

At 8 o'clock, Fitz was on her door step knocking.

"I know; I came to return it." Fitz saw the confusion in her eyes as she opened the door further for him to come in. "Is Grace asleep?" Olivia nodded and closed the door, taking the key from his outreached hand. "After you left this afternoon I realized that I've screwed up. I've been treating you like a murderer for so long when really you're the victim."

"Before, in the Rose Garden, you told me I was no one's victim."

"That was before."

"So what's changed?"

"I never actually gave you a say. I told you where to be, where to go, what job to take. You didn't get a chance to say what you really wanted. And I blame myself for that. I was blindsided by what we were to even think about what you wanted. I wanted us but you didn't. And I pushed you into this. I asked what you wanted but I never listened. And I'm sorry for that. I should have been listening. Maybe if I had, we wouldn't be like this. We wouldn't constantly be hating each other and fighting over when I get to see Grace or even gone to court for custody. So we're going to do this your way. And I can only hope that you will take into consideration that I do love Grace. And that I never meant to hurt her. I've been trying to make you pay and all I've done is make her pay for what happened. It's not her fault and it isn't yours either. So, I'm giving you back the key and we can start over. I want you to be able to trust me and not just trust me with Grace but trust me like you used to. And I'm sorry that I broke my promise to you and that you were hurt. I never should have called you a mistress. You never were a mistress and you never will be. I don't care what anyone else thinks, you are not a mistress. And I never should have made you feel like you were one. I'm going to try to win back your trust and we can go from there."

Fitz started to head for the door when Olivia kept looking at the floor as she sat on the couch.

"You have no idea."

"What?"

"You have no idea what it's like to have the only person in the world that you thought you could trust, turn their back on you. Having you look at me like I was just some play thing that you had hurt more than anything I ever imagined. When you said I wasn't worth it, you… you have no idea how much I would have preferred you just stab me to death instead."

"Olivia…"

"That's the truth. I thought we were working on getting somewhere. I said I'd wait for you and that I was pregnant and you told me to get rid of it. And now. Now you see her…"

"And can't imagine my life without her."

"For one brief minute, I actually thought about getting an abortion. And it took me less than sixty seconds to decide that she would be mine to care for. Whether you wanted her or not. She's your daughter. She's the President's daughter. And if anyone ever found out, I'd be getting death threats about her daily. I can't take the possibility that something can happen to her."

"Something could happen to any one of us at any given time."

"Don't you think I know that? You were shot!"

"I know."

"I couldn't be in the hospital room with you because Mellie wouldn't let me. If you died and I never got to say goodbye or how much I love you…"

Fitz sat down next to her on the couch and pulled her onto his lap, kissing her cheek as she let out her tears that had been held back since he was shot.

"Nothing happened, Livie. I'm still here and you have me. You don't have to think about what could have happened because it's not going to happen. We've stepped up security, heightened the codes, everything. I'm safe and you don't have to tell me goodbye. I'm not going anywhere."

"But you don't know that. You can leave any time and take Grace."

"If there is one thing that I need you to understand more than how much I absolutely love you, it's that I would never take Grace away from you completely. I may take her for a weekend or a couple weeks during summer for visitation but I will never take Grace to where you can't see her. You are her mother and she needs you, just like she needs me. Please understand that."

"I'm not ready for you to take her away from me over night. I need more time."

"I'll give you all the time that you need."

Fitz set her down next to him and got up going to see Grace for the night. When he came back out and headed to the door Olivia stopped him.

She held out the key for him to take. "I do want you to see Grace whenever you want. I didn't give you the key without hesitation. I thought over the options and what could happen. Tom and David and I worked out a plan to get you here whenever you want day or night. All you have to do is tell them you want to see her and they'll get you here. Like you said, Grace needs you, and you need her. Take the key and use it whenever. The guest room is set for you and has several suits for you to wear if you spend the night."

Fitz took the key from her holding her hand as he took it. "Thank you, Livie."


	18. Saving Karen

"Gracie, please, stop crying! I know it hurts!" Olivia yelled in the middle of the night hearing Grace cry for the second day in a row. Getting up to go to her room, Liv stepped into the nursery seeing that she wasn't there but was in the guest bedroom with Fitz laying on the bed.

She stayed in the doorway watching them for a few minutes before she let her presence known.

"I didn't hear you come in," she told him letting him see her in the darkness as she stepped over to the bed.

"You were already sound asleep. I didn't want to wake you."

"Obviously she does though."

"She has a tooth coming in, she's allowed to scream." Fitz held a teething ring in her mouth letting her suck on it.

"I wish she wouldn't scream though."

"She's a baby, Olivia. She's going to scream."

"Still."

"Go back to bed, I've got her until sunrise."

Olivia left the guest room going back to her bed and falling asleep. When she woke up in the morning, Grace was in her crib in the guest room and Fitz was already gone. She got herself ready for work then gathered Grace's things and headed out to go to the office. Olivia parked in the parking garage behind the building as usual and went to get Grace's car seat out of the back when her phone rang. She went to answer it but it wasn't ringing. Liv reached into her purse and pulled out her other cell phone. Only three people had the number to it and this wasn't the usual one.

"What's happened?"

Olivia buckled Grace back into the seat and got in heading towards the White House. Getting there in record time, she put the car in park outside the gates and grabbed Grace and her things going towards the Oval.

"Ms. Pope, he's in a meeting," Charlotte told her when she opened the door to the Oval not seeing Fitz.

"Where?"

"Situation room. But you can't go in there."

Olivia took off running down the halls to the situation room carrying Grace and her diaper bag in heels to the other side of the building. The Secret Service had tried to stop her from entering the room but she passed by them anyway.

All heads in the room turned to see who barged into the room behind Fitz.

Fitz saw how rattled Olivia was and knew something was wrong.

"I need the room gentlemen," Fitz started.

"No time for that, Fitz," Olivia pushed through. She set Grace's car seat down next to him. "I need you to watch her. I don't have time to explain."

Olivia kissed Grace's forehead and headed out of the Situation room with Fitz tailing her, leaving Grace with Cyrus.

"I'll walk you out." Olivia took off her heels and started to run down the hall with Fitz still beside her. "Or I can run with you out. What happened?"

"I don't have time to explain or have all the details. I need to leave the country to help someone and I can't take Grace with me. Watch her and I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Olivia…"

"Just keep your phone on you and do not panic!"

Liv ran the rest of the way to the car and sped off to the airport and met her team at the gate before getting on the private jet.

"Any information yet?" Abby asked her, Huck, Quinn, and Harrison getting on the plane.

"All we know is that Karen is somewhere in France. She has no idea how she got there. Or where exactly she is," Olivia told them.

"Then how does she know she's in France?"

"She can hear the people on the other side of the door speaking French. She knows the language and speaks it."

"So what are they saying?"

"They're asking if the hotel manager knows that there is a young girl in the room alone."

"She's alone?"

"Yes," Olivia answered them. "She's alone."

"Where are her agents?"

"I don't know! But I'll have their heads on silver platters."

Olivia pulled out her phone again and called Karen.

"Liv?"

"Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"I feel sleepy. And my head hurts so bad. When are you coming to get me?"

"Soon, Kare, we'll be there in a couple hours. I have the fastest jet going beyond to get me to you. Don't go to sleep okay. I want you to stay on the phone with me. Got it?"

"Okay."

"Look outside and tell me what you see."

"There's tall buildings and lots of people."

"Do you see anyone in a uniform? Anyone who looks like a police officer uniform?"

"No, I'm too high above to see uniforms. Liv, I'm freaking out!"

"Don't freak out, Karen. I want you to pick up the phone and call down to the main desk, tell them that you need a police officer to the room you're calling from."

Karen did what Olivia said to do and waited for an officer to come.

"What's the last thing you remember, Karen?" Olivia asked her.

While they talked, Huck tried to track where the cellular towers were that gave Karen access to call.

"I was in my dorm doing homework. Jerry said he'd be back later. I think he was going to see the basketball game or something."

"He was, that's great Karen. I already talked to Jerry and he's at the dorms with the agents." Olivia heard the loud knock on the door in the background and the police identify themselves. "Answer the door and tell the police that you need to be taken to the American consulate, immediately."

Again, Karen did what she was told to do and stayed on the phone with her.

"Liv, please hurry, I don't like this."

"I know, sweetie, it's going to be okay though. We're going to come get you and bring you home." As they talked Olivia could hear her cell phone ringing in her purse. "Karen, I want you to talk to Abby for a few minutes, okay? I need to answer my other phone really quick." Olivia handed Abby the phone. "Keep her calm and tell her that we will be there soon."

"Hey Karen, everything's okay," Abby told her.

Olivia left to go to the bedroom and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"And why aren't you answering the other phone?"

"I guess I didn't hear it. How's Grace?"

"She's asleep. Where are you?"

"On a plane. Did you feed her?"

"Of course I fed her. Why are you on a plane?"

"It's the best way to get to another country. She better not be around Mellie."

"She's not around Mellie. Why do you need to go to another country?"

"Client. Where are you?"

"In my private office. Where are you headed?"

"France. She's in a playpen right?"

"She's on the floor sound asleep. What's in France for a client?"

"That's classified information. Is she at least on a blanket on the floor?"

"I'm not an idiot Olivia."

"I never said you were."

"Where is the other phone?"

"In my purse in the other room. I just didn't hear it. You can relax."

"Last night you said you didn't trust me to keep Grace for a couple hours without you in the same building and then this morning you show up and hand her to me. I don't think relaxing is something I can do because you, Olivia Carolyn Pope, are hiding something. And I want to know what it is."

"Classified information. You are not the client. Therefore, I cannot tell you anything."

"Not even a little hint? Senator's kid?"

"No."

"Governor's kid?"

"You could say that."

"Now I'm getting somewhere. Is it…"

"Fitz, I don't have time for these guessing games. I really need to go take care of this. I will call you in a little bit to check on Grace."

"Just be careful Olivia."

"Thanks."

Olivia hung up and went back to the main room taking the phone from Abby.

"Karen? Where are you?"

"They are taking me to the consulate. He says we're about twenty minutes away."

"Okay, good. I need to call them to get them ready. I want you to keep talking to Abby."

Olivia handed back the phone to Abby while she called the France consulate.

"Lena, Butterfly is twenty minutes out. Eagle cannot know. I'm an hour away. Get ready." She hung up and went back to the main room. "Lena is going to take good care of you, Kare. Everything is going to be okay. I'm an hour away."

They stayed on the phone with Karen until they arrived at the consulate.

"Olivia!" Karen screamed when they came in, running to her. "Dad doesn't know right?"

"He has no idea. But we have to tell him when we get back. He's going to know something is up when you and Jerry come back and start going to a school in D.C."

Karen got on the jet with Olivia and everyone flying back to D.C.

"Liv?"

"What's up, Karen?"

"Why would Jerry and I come back to D.C. for school?"

"Someone got you to France without your details. And it happened while you were at school. Obviously they cannot be trusted. You'll need new details and a new school. That school is not as protected as it needs to be. I got you and Jerry into a new school in D.C. that has all the protection that you need. Your father and I can discuss you and Jerry living with me instead of at the White House or at Blair House since I know how much you two hate it. But either way, he has to know what happened."

"He's going to be so pissed."

"Yeah, he is."


	19. Telling Fitz

"Back so soon," Fitz said when Olivia walked into the Oval.

"It didn't take as long as I thought it would. How was Grace?"

"Perfect as usual. Your client is alright then?"

"We need to talk."

"I absolutely hate when you say that."

"DAD!" Karen yelled running into the Oval.

Fitz hugged her when she ran into him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her sitting down. Seeing the look Olivia was giving was a big clue. "Karen is your client."

"Like I said, we need to talk." Olivia picked up Grace and put her on her hip. "Karen, this is my daughter Grace. Why don't you two play while your dad and I talk in the other room?"

"No problem, Liv."

Karen took Grace from her and sat on the floor playing with her toys with her while Fitz and Olivia went to the private office.

"Now what has she gotten into?" he crossed his arms and sat on the desk waiting for her to start explaining.

"Do you remember when I said that the school was the safest place for the kids because it was away from the D.C. drama that you would be working?"

"Distinctly."

"Well, I may have messed that up. I think the safest place for the kids is to be in D.C…. with me."

"What? With you? Don't you have enough of my children? You have Grace."

"You are right; Karen is my client. Somehow or another, she ended up drugged and taken to another country."

"Run that by me again?"

"Karen called me this morning. She was in Paris. She doesn't know how she got there but I am going to find out, believe me. I already have my people working on it. But since this has happened, I think it will be best if I bring Karen and Jerry back to D.C. and they stay with me."

"Bringing them back to D.C., yes that's great. But they are not staying with you."

"Fitz…"

"No. These are my kids and they are safe at the White House with me."

"And school?"

"We will get them homeschooled."

"Aren't they sheltered enough?"

"Obviously not if she ended up in Paris."

"They are so sheltered already and they don't want to live here. Jerry and Karen don't want to live in the White House. They don't want to live with you and Mellie."

"Making up lies won't change my mind, Olivia. I will have them homeschooled and safe here."

"So you're going to stick them in the Residence and hold them captive here? Because you're held prisoner in the White House? How is that fair to them?"

"Life isn't fair, Olivia."

"Jerry and Karen love both you and Mellie but they hate to live with you. All the two of you do is fight. No one wants to live around that. They were so happy when they got to go to school away from the two of you but get to come home on holidays and summer. Let them stay with me and I will have them here for dinner every night with you and Mellie. I will have them to school every day and here every night."

"And Grace?"

"No."

Fitz moved around to the chair behind the desk standing behind it staring at her.

"Why not?"

"My no Mellie rule still stands. I don't want her around my daughter."

"Our daughter."

"Fine, I don't want her around our daughter. You know how I feel about that."

"What if I can get it changed?"

"Get what changed?"

"I'll come over to your apartment for dinner with the kids. I can even bring Teddy. We'll have family dinner."

"Fitz… we aren't a family. Just because we are getting along doesn't mean that we are a family."

"You gave me the key to your apartment."

"So you can see Grace. I told you I wouldn't deny you access to her but that doesn't mean we are family."

"Believe it or not, Olivia, we are. If you are going to care for my kids along with Grace, it does make us family."

"Does that mean we can live with Liv?" Karen asked coming into the room with Grace.

"I'll have to see what your mother says."

"Why can't you decide, dad?"

"Because she is going to have a fit when she finds out that you ended up in Paris. And Jerry has to get a say."

"I've already got him on Marine One coming here. He should be landing in the next hour," Olivia told him.

Karen left the room letting them continue their discussion.

"You don't have enough room for them and you and Grace."

"I'll figure something out."

"Liv, you know that you are taking on way too much, right?"

"They're teenagers, not infants. I can give Jerry the guest room and Karen my room and I'll sleep in the nursery with Grace. She's up every hour anyway."

"What if you just go to Vermont? Use the house up there."

"That's your house. I can't live there with three kids."

"It's our house. And you can live there. It has plenty of space, that's what it was designed for."

"We aren't getting back together, Fitz. It's your house."

"Don't say that. We just haven't talked about getting back together. We can work that out later. Right now, let's get Karen and Grace some dinner and wait for Jerry."


	20. The Other

"Liv, Dad's here!"

Karen opened the door for him and Teddy to come in for dinner since his hands were full of take out. This had been their routine for the past few weeks. Either Olivia would cook or Fitz would bring food in for them for dinner. Through the weeks that they had been there, Olivia would leave the apartment so Fitz could have quality time with his children. Jerry and Karen had been enjoying their stay with Olivia at her apartment. Against Mellie's insistent demands that her children stay with her, Fitz made sure that they spent the weekend at the White House.

"Finally, I'm starving!" Jerry screamed running to the table.

"You just ate an hour ago."

"That was then, this is now."

"The two of you need to hush up," Fitz told them putting Teddy in his booster seat at the table.

Olivia put Grace in her high chair and headed towards the door, "I left pie in the kitchen for dessert," she told them before walking out.

Disappointed that she wasn't having dinner with them again, Fitz dished out Chinese food for the kids and got Grace's baby food.

Olivia sat down across from her date.

"I was starting to think you weren't going to show up."

"Sorry, work got a little bit late."

"And the kids?"

"They are fine. They're with their father."

Olivia took a sip of her wine staring at her date, Henry. She met him at the dry cleaners two weeks before when she dropped off her suits before work one day. They ran into each other several times in two days and he asked her for her number then a date. A little bit of hesitation, Olivia agreed. Now, she'd been out with him four times. She found, through her research and Huck, he's 35, a lobbyist for animal rights, never married, and no criminal record.

"And are you comfortable with that?"

"It's alright. Anyway, what are we having tonight?"

Henry and Olivia sat at the restaurant for several hours. Before either one knew, it was nearly midnight and the waiter ushered them out. He called over a taxi and took her home, getting out on the curb with her.

"I'm thrilled you were able to get out tonight. I'd love to take you out tomorrow."

"Well, I'll check my schedule and see what I can do. But I highly doubt…"

"Are you ever coming back?"

Henry and Olivia turned around to see Fitz standing at the doorway of the apartment building.

"Mr. President…" Henry was stunned to see him standing there.

"I'll be up in a few minutes," she told Fitz while she kept her eyes on Henry.

"Olivia," Fitz started in.

"I said a few minutes."

"I think now is a better time. Get upstairs."

"Excuse me?"

Olivia turned to shoot death glares at Fitz.

"I think I should go, Olivia. I'll…"

"No, I think I should go," she told them. Without another word, Olivia started walking down the street ignoring Fitz calling after her. She saw Henry get into the cab and continued walking.

"STOP. WALKING." Fitz shouted at her.

Liv turned around and faced him. "What the hell was that?"

"Good question. What was that?"

"I don't have to explain a damn thing to you."

"I believe I have a right to know who is around my daughter."

"Thought she was our daughter?"

"They are my kids, Olivia."

"And he hasn't been within eye sight of them. All he knows is that I have kids. That's all he needs to know."

"Did you do a background check on him?"

"Did you?"

"Had I known you were seeing someone, yes I would have done one. Are you screwing him?"

"And who are you screwing?"

"No one, not that it's any of your business."

"Same to you," she told him walking back to the apartment doors.

"We are not done!"

"I believe we are. What I do away from the kids is none of your concern. If I want to bring someone home, then it can be your concern. But since it's not going to happen and you very likely just ruined any possible thing I had with Henry, none of this is your concern."

Olivia opened the door to her apartment slamming the door behind her in his face. After a moment, he walked in after her.

"Whatever you do concerns me. You have most of my children with you. Sometimes even Teddy. And anyone who is around them needs to be cleared by Secret Service. You know the protocol. Grace should even have an agent with her at all times."

"I already told you no to that."

"You really don't get a say. I'm bending the rules a lot for you."

"I broke all of mine for you!"

"Oh, don't even go there. No one made you do anything you didn't want to do. Don't play the victim here, we both know you aren't."

"You tend to be bipolar about me being a victim. First you tell me that I'm no one's victim, then you tell me that I am one and now you've decided that I am not. Pick a damn one! I committed treason for you. I broke my rule of never sleeping with a client. Never get too involved with a client. Once the job is done, move on. I broke all of them for you."

"That's on you, not me. I told you during the campaign that we could end it before it began."

"Really? 'It'? Use the real term, Fitzgerald. We've been having an affair that's gone on far too long. We need to just be done. I'll go my way and you go yours. We need to just end this. All we ever do is fight and argue. It's not good for either of us. And it's not good for any of the kids."

"We'll never be done with each other, Olivia. We have Grace. That's going to link us forever. And we aren't ending a damn thing."

"I think you should leave."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Fine, I'll leave."


	21. Focus On Us

Olivia sat in the park outside the White House drinking her coffee at two in the morning being alone for several hours going over how her life ended up like it had.

"What are you still doing here?"

Olivia set her keys down and went into her bedroom seeing Fitz half asleep sitting up on her bed against the bed post.

"Waiting for you. Where have you been? Do you know what time it is?"

"It's four in the morning. So what are you doing here?"

"I couldn't just leave the kids alone. Are you alright? You aren't hurt or anything right?"

"I'm fine."

"Where have you been?"

"Out."

"I know that. Did you go see him again?"

"It's none of your business."

"IT IS MY BUSINESS!"

"Keep your voice down. The kids are asleep. I needed time to myself."

"Why couldn't you just do that here?"

"You're here and so are the kids. This really isn't working. We aren't working anymore. I think we need to…"

"Marry me."

"Work out… wait… what?"

"Marry me. That's going to fix everything."

"Now it won't. That's going to cause more problems. We have so many issues already and you want to get married? Why? So you can control me? Monitor me and everyone that's around me?"

"I don't control you. If I did, you wouldn't be out until four in the morning."

"No I'd be locked into a house taking care of kids and not doing my work. OPA wouldn't exist anymore. People count on me, Fitz."

"I count on you."

"You still have a whole other term to go through."

"I'm not running again."

"Of course you are. You'll have a second term and help the country become better."

"I can't make myself better. How am I supposed to make the country better?"

"Give me one good reason why you shouldn't run again."

"I was shot."

"And you lived."

"And next time I won't be so lucky."

"Fitz, please."

"Honestly, Olivia, they shot me once, what's to say that they won't try again, and this time succeed. And the kids? What about all the death threats to the kids? They can shoot me but…"

"STOP! JUST STOP!"

"Liv…"

"I know you were shot, I was there! I was there and I saw the entire thing."

"Then why can't we just ignore everything else and focus on what we want."

Olivia sat down on the edge of the bed away from him but heard Grace start to cry. She felt the bed lift knowing that he was getting up. Watching him leave the room to go get their daughter, she knew she wanted to be with him but there were just so many things that they would have to negotiate on.

After a few minutes Olivia laid down waiting for Fitz to come back to her room. Not feeling the bed dip with his weight after a half hour she went to find him. Taking his hand from where he was laying down on the couch, without saying anything, she dragged him back to her bed crawling in and falling asleep in his arms after saying, "we'll talk about this in the morning."


	22. Family

"Where are the kids?"

Olivia walked out to the living room in the quiet apartment. No one was there except for Fitz sitting on the couch. He had her scrambled eggs ready for her with toast on the coffee table.

"They're at the White House. Mellie is in France so I had Tom take them over to the Residence so we could talk. Figured it might be easier than trying to get you to the White House."

"You made breakfast?"

"Yeah, I thought you might be hungry."

"Thanks."

Liv sat on the couch and ate her breakfast in silence with him.

"Do you still want to get married?" she asked him putting the plate on the table.

"Always. Do you?"

"I don't want to give up everything that I've worked for. I won't give up my life and my business to be a First Lady or anyone's housewife. I won't do it for you and I won't do it for anyone else."

"I wouldn't ask you to do that. You aren't the type of person to be a housewife, thankfully."

"Thankfully?"

"I don't want a housewife. I want a partner. We should be partners."

"You make it sound like a business deal. We can't be partners. You have a country to run and as a First Lady, I wouldn't be able to be a partner to you."

"Understand one thing, okay?" He watched her nod her understanding. "Whatever happens between you and me, I will not run for a second term. I need to focus on my kids for a while. Maybe after Karen and Gerry go to college I'll consider running again but that's a discussion for another time. So much has been happening that I can't run a country as well as take care of my kids and you."

"I think we need to have that discussion now. You're married to her, so…"

"Don't bring her into this please."

"She's the biggest part of this. That's a problem."

"I've already sent her divorce papers. She got them yesterday."

"Fitz, that's… not what I was expecting."

"What else were you expecting?"

"I don't know; I guess maybe you would… we would raise Grace together but separately."

"Why in hell would we ever do that? She is our daughter and we are going to raise her together."

"And Karen and Gerry and Teddy? You want to break up their family for Grace?"

"No one's family is being broke up. The kids don't have an actual family. Grace does. She has two brothers and a sister that adore her. She has both of us. The kids barely have me and Mellie. But they do have you so why can't we fix all of this and let them have an actual family?"

"We are actually a family but we don't need to be together for that."

"We should be together. Of course we should be together. We have a daughter and she needs stability. Karen and Gerry never got stability. We can give both Teddy and Grace stability. A real childhood instead of being raised by nannies and being sent to a boarding school."

"And I agree. The kids do need to have a normal childhood and I want them to have that. Karen and Gerry should have at least a normal high school life. But then again, they are still the president's children so they won't ever have a normal life."

"But they'll have one close enough to it. They deserve it. I put them through so much already. I want to make it right."

"So you want to end your term now?"

"I figured I'd finish my term out and then we'd get married and move out to Vermont."

"But you'll run again?"

"We can discuss that another time. In the future when we are both comfortable with this."

"Okay."

"Good, now that that is settled; What else do we need to talk about?"

Olivia leaned back on the couch. "I think we should talk to Karen and Gerry and see what they think about us getting married."

"Okay, get dressed."

"Why?"

"We're going to the Residence to talk to the kids."


	23. Talking To The Kids

"So what do you guys think?"

Fitz and Olivia sat at the dining room table with Karen and Gerry letting them know what the plan was and if they were okay with them getting married.

"You guys should already be married. It's absolutely ridiculous that you and mom fight all the time!" Karen told them.

"What about mom? Where's she going to go?" Jerry asked.

"She's going to get the house in Santa Barbra. I've already sent her the divorce papers. I don't think she's going to give us any trouble about them," Fitz started before Olivia jumped in.

"We want you guys to be comfortable with all of this. This isn't just a family thing. The entire world will be watching this. You'll hear about this a lot in school. And you know you can talk to either of us about anything if you want to. One other thing we can do is home school you for a while until the media finds something else to chew on. But that's up to you two. It's not going to be easy. You're going to hear a lot of ugly things about especially me. They're going to call me awful names and say how much I've ruined this family…"

"But you haven't," Karen jumped in, "Dad and Mom hate each other. And whenever he's with you he smiles more and actually looks at you. He won't look at mom."

"You are family, Liv," Gerry told her. "You've been there for me and Karen more than both mom and dad put together. No offense dad."

"It's an open table here and no one is going to take offense to anything. Whatever you guys want to say, you can say without judgment," Fitz said to keep them talking.

"We'll be back."

Karen and Gerry got up from the table and went to the other room.

"What do you think, Gerry?"

"She's already like our mom. And with mom focusing on her attention on Uncle Andrew and trying to overtake dad being president, she hasn't got time for us."

"Mom hasn't been to any of our conferences or games or performances. And Liv's been to every one of them. She's family already."

"But she's going to marry dad."

"They should have already been married. They should be celebrating their five anniversary already."

"So you've decided?"

"I have. Then we're agreed?"

Karen nodded and they went back to the table with Fitz and Olivia.

"Well?" Fitz asked after a minute of silence.

"Liv's already our mom. Let's make it official."

Without thinking Olivia got up and hugged both of them together. "You guys are my kids too."

Fitz watched the three of them hug each other tight and loved seeing them all together.

"Well isn't this lovely?"

Everyone turned around to see Mellie standing in the doorway.

"Anyone want to tell me what in the hell is going on? Why are you hugging my children?"

"Fitz, we'll leave you two to discuss this."

Olivia took the kids to get Teddy and Grace.

"Mellie, you got the papers. Of course Olivia is going to be here. She's going to be living here soon. I just want this done quietly and quickly."

"I don't want you embarrassing me with her moving in here as soon as I leave."

"No one is going to know that she's living here for a month or two. I already told you that you are getting the house and that I will back you when you do decide to run. All of that in exchange your silence about me and Olivia."

"And the kids?"

"They are going to decide for themselves. They are old enough and we can discuss Teddy."

"I'm pregnant. It's Andrew's baby."

"Well it sure as hell isn't mine. I think you are the one who is going to be making an embarrassment of this family."

"I didn't say I was keeping it."

"So you're going to have an abortion? That's up to you, I don't need any part of that."

"You're right, it's none of your business. Just like Grace isn't any of mine."

"How do you know about Grace?"

"Honestly, you didn't think I would know who is coming in and out of the White House, the Residence, without someone telling me?"

"Your silence includes Grace. People already know about my affair with Olivia but they don't know about Grace. That's the way Olivia wants it for now."

"I can respect that. I don't want anyone knowing that Andrew and I are having a baby yet. So silence on that."

"Perfectly fine. Let's just move all this along."

"Fine. I'll be moving out to Santa Barbara by the end of the week. If Karen and Gerry want to come with that's fine. Right now I think I would prefer them stay with you or back to school so Andrew and I can discuss our options about this."

"Wow. You really are mother of the year aren't you?"

"Don't even go there. You aren't a perfect parent either."

"I never claimed to be. You'll use this baby just like you have used Teddy. Need it all for show."

"I'm done with this. I'll be out by Friday. Saturday you can move in your mistress and her bastard for all I care."


	24. Wedding Talk

"Why is it that every time I come home from a day in the Situation room you are sitting at my desk in my office?"

Fitz stared at Olivia sitting with her feet propped up on the desk in the Oval. He couldn't help but stand there silent just watching her for a couple minutes. He noticed her looking at a wedding magazine that she never would let him see.

"Well, when you aren't in here it's very quiet. And your daughter is giving me a headache with all her screaming. And Karen is stalking me."

"Grace is growing molars. You just have to let her scream it out. Did you give her the carrot like I told you too?"

"You're father of the year, she hates me."

"She doesn't hate you."

"That's why she keeps crying whenever I pick her up anymore?"

"She's just in pain baby. She'll stop crying soon and crawl right over to you."

"Can you give me a date and time?"

"Soon. Are you going to show me the dress that you picked out yet?"

Olivia smirked and hid the magazine behind her back.

"I haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about Mr. President."

Fitz slowly moved over to her pinning her between the chair and him.

"Mr. President? It must be really sexy then."

"It's appropriate for a First Lady to wear."

"You'll only be First Lady for less than a year. Don't worry about that. Pick out whatever dress you want and show me."

"You'll see the dress at the wedding. And when you run again for President, they will show pictures of our wedding and put them all up and talk about what I looked like. So it does matter which one I choose."

"Who says I'm going to run for another term?"

"Not again with this Fitz. You're going to run again. Whether it's in four years or eight, you will run again."

"And I'll have more kids when we do run again."

"Just relax about that. I don't want to share you too much."

"Good, I won't share you either. So what's up with Karen?"

Fitz pulled her up and sat down pulling her on his lap.

"She found some bridesmaids gowns she thinks look amazing. She's shown me thirty already today. And since she hates coming down here, I thought I might be safe for a couple hours."

"She'll find you soon. It's almost five and everyone will be going home soon."

Fitz played with her hand running his fingers over her 'sweet baby' ring and her engagement ring. He knew Olivia loved the way the ring sparkled in the sunlight because of every time he's caught her staring at it when she thought he wasn't looking.

"In the meantime. How about you go over this speech with me and we can get this done and go have dinner with our kids?"

Liv nodded and sat up on his desk making notes of speech and how to fix it.

"Are you guys ever going to feed us!" Karen asked when she came down to the Oval with Grace on her hip. "It's almost eight. And someone is really hungry."

"This one too," Gerry told them walking in with Teddy and pizza.

"Family dinner in the Oval… sounds like a plan to me."

"Here Liv," Karen handed Olivia several gowns she pulled out of a magazine. "The pink one is really cute."

Olivia looked at it and handed them to Fitz. "Told you."


	25. Let's Call It Quits

"I need you to go talk to his wife. And don't forget to ask about his daughter," Olivia explained to her OPA team.

"We're on it, Liv. Meet you back at the office," Quinn told her getting up with Huck and Marcus.

Fitz waited patiently outside the Oval waiting for Olivia to finish her meeting with her team.

"Sorry, Mr. President. That took longer than I thought," Quinn told him walking out into the lobby.

"It's alright Quinn, at least she's around adults."

Fitz let them walk out before going into the office. He watched Olivia go through the paperwork she had on his desk.

"Still not your office, Livie."

"But it could be. And will be. What's yours is mine, remember?"

"Does that mean I get OPA as well?"

"You're funny, you know that? OPA is all mine. No one will ever touch that baby."

Fitz moved towards her, kissing her when he was close enough. "So do I get to know who the client is?"

"Confidentiality. Even against my soon to be husband."

"I love the sound of that… husband."

"Well I love to say it. I was thinking maybe we can take the kids up to Vermont for the weekend. Let them get used to the house and enjoy it before they actually live in it."

"That sounds perfect. When did you want to go?"

"Tomorrow. I'm taking the weekend off. I'll get to spend the weekend alone with you and all our kids."

"We can't go this weekend. Mellie is going to take the kids for the weekend and I'm going to the meeting in Canada for peace talks."

Olivia looked a bit disappointed but knew it was part of the job. "Alright, we'll just go another weekend. I'll finish some work here at home. Abby can take Grace for a couple nights."

"Abby is coming with me."

"Oh, alright."

"I'm sure she can take Grace too. Only Cyrus is absolutely needed in the meetings, Abby is going for backup. She'll enjoy some time with Grace."

"Perfect. I can get some work done and some wedding planning done."

"You still haven't finished this? We are getting married in six weeks, Liv."

"I know that. Things have gotten a bit busy with work and the kids."

"You have two clients and Karen and Gerry are at school. Teddy and Grace are with the nanny or sleeping. Have you even sent out the invites?"

"Of course I have… well it's on my to do list. I can get that done this weekend. And I have a dress fitting tomorrow."

"Do you even want to get married?"

Olivia stared at him, unable to comprehend that he actually just asked that.

"Do you?"

"Answer the question, Olivia. Do you want to get married?"

"Of course I do! I haven't been planning a wedding for my own sanity. I've been doing it for us. And when have you been helping me with this?"

"I have to run a country."

"And I have to save your ass."

"Where the hell did that come from?"

"You used to love my job. That I could help you and make any problem go away."

"I never said I didn't love your job."

"No, you just love my job when it's benefiting you."

"Look in the mirror, Olivia. You've used this office more times than anyone I know."

"That's where we're going with this? Because I use your pull. Like you use mine?"

"There's no point in arguing about this," Fitz sat down on the couch.

"You're right, there's no point. Why are we even getting married? We only fight about everything. Maybe we should call it off."

Olivia started to pack up her paperwork and go when the baby monitor went off letting her know that Grace was awake. She left her things and went to get Grace from Cyrus's office from her nap.

After a while, Liv went upstairs for dinner with Grace and Teddy meeting everyone else at the table.

"Are you guys okay?" Karen spoke up after ten minutes of silence between everyone.

"We're fine, Karen. Just finish your dinner," Fitz told her.

"You guys don't look fine. You usually each other what you did today and you aren't doing that."

"Just eat, Karen," Fitz repeated.

"Your father and I are in the middle of an argument, Karen. We don't need to know about each other's days because we were there the whole time. Finish dinner, sweetie," Olivia told her feeding Grace.

"Are you breaking up?"

"Damn it Karen! Just eat!" Fitz screamed at her.

Karen stared at him for a moment before running off to her bedroom. Fitz had never yelled at his kids like that before. Olivia couldn't believe he would do that to her.

"Way to go, Fitzgerald. Gerry please feed your sister while I take care of Karen."

Olivia followed after Karen closing the door behind her.

"He's not mad at you Karen. He's angry with me."

"But he doesn't have to be so mean to everyone else about it. He didn't do that with mom."

"We just bring out the worst in each other."

"But you bring out the best more. He's so happy when he sees you and he smiles a lot more when you're around. You guys are only mad at each other every now and then."

"It might be for the best though."

"Are you really going to break up?"

"We haven't decided yet. But even if we do, you still have me. No matter what. And you will always have Gracie."

"Good, because kangaroo out there is what I want in the break up."

"I think we can work out a visitation schedule with the two of you."

"So you are going to break up?"

"Who knows? Maybe we will or maybe we won't. Either way. None of it is anyone's fault. It's just the way things are. You should get to bed soon. It's getting rather late."

"Thanks Liv. I'll get ready for bed but one thing?"

"Sure, what's that?"

"Gracie sleeps in here tonight."

"Sounds good."

Olivia left her bedroom to get Grace and get her ready for bed. Once she was in her pajamas she took her to Karen's room and set her in the playpen to go to sleep with her stuffed kangaroo that Karen got her. Once Liv told all the kids goodnight, she went to the bedroom she shared with Fitz to get her pajamas and go to another room to sleep. When she did Fitz was nowhere to be found.

Fitz came up from the Oval to their bedroom but didn't find Olivia. He searched a few of the bedrooms before finding her on the other end of the Residence. Liv was sound asleep but he went in and laid down next to her. He moved the hair from her face and kissed her forehead.

"I'm sorry sweet baby."


	26. Apologizing

"Miss Pope?"

Olivia sat in Fitz's office at his desk flipping through her wedding magazine while she waited for her dress fitting appointment time. She looked up seeing Charlotte at the door.

"You can go home, Charlotte. Fitz is gone for the weekend and there's not much for you to do when he's not here," Liv told her.

"Alright, but he's on the phone for you."

"Oh, thanks Charlotte, see you on Monday." Liv waited for her to close the door before she answered the phone. "What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry about last night. I didn't mean to attack you like that about getting married. I just thought you would have sent out the invitations by now."

"I've been a little busy, Fitz. And I'm the only one working on this wedding. And taking care of the kids and work and you, it's exhausting."

"I should have been helping you more. I thought you wanted to do it yourself or with Abby. It's your first wedding."

"Abby hasn't been helping me at all. I can take care of this but it's going to take me more than twelve hours."

"You're right. It is going to take a little more time so get it all done. We can get an event planner if you want one. Either way, Olivia, I do want to marry you."

Olivia was quiet for several minutes staying on the phone with him.

"Do you still want to marry me?" Fitz asked her a little scared of the answer.

"We have to stop fighting."

"Agreed; but that's going to happen sometimes. We are going to fight. But we'll figure it out."

"In six weeks and four hours, I'm going to marry you. Like it or not."

"Good, because I'm going to love it."

"How's the meeting going? Any luck?"

"So far so good. How's the Oval office? Still holding it down?"

"Always. Is Grace okay?"

"She's alright. Abby is at the pool with her right now."

"Okay. So we are going to get married, right?"

"Of course, we're going to get married. I can't wait to marry you."

"Me either."

"I need to get going. My dress fitting is in a half hour."

"Okay, you go do your dress fitting and I'll see you in two days."

"I'll video chat you later tonight. I do love you, Fitz."

"I love you too sweet baby."

Olivia hung up the phone and sat at in his office a bit longer. Staring out the window behind her she just watched, looking at the roses.

Fitz sat in his meeting with Cyrus wanting to come to a peace solution. Going very well and almost to a solution, secret service burst through the doors snatching Fitz and leaving.

"Tom! I demand to know what is going on!"

Tom pushed Fitz into the car yelling for the driver to go. He pushed the power button on the new tv to show Fitz what happened.

" _Luckily, President Grant is out of the country this weekend at the peace talks in Canada. The White House has been bombed. So far no one is taking responsibility for this action. President Grant is out of harm's way and safe as we have been told. It's unsure as to how many casualties there are right now, but since it's Saturday, not many people are expected to be there. As we've been told, the Oval Office is certainly gone. We'll keep you posted as more information becomes available."_

"GET ME OLIVIA!"


	27. Author's Note 2

Alright guys, so apparently I don't know how to write and am wasting everyone's time so… actually wait, here's this:

To the little shit that has no balls to create and account and tell me on a comment or private message me that you don't like my stories: GO TO HELL! No one is making you read any of these. So grow a fucking pair and grow up!

To those of you other people who are reading these stories, thank you for your support and comments. I love to read all your comments and see what you think will happen.

Love you guys!


	28. Waiting Game

"Get her on the phone now! Find her!"

Fitz had been screaming at the agents for several hours trying to find Olivia. He made sure that Gerry, Karen, and Teddy were safe. Fitz had been calling Olivia on every phone she had to get ahold of her but so far there was no answer on any. Pictures had been all over the news channels of the White House in flames and destroyed from the Oval and further in.

"Sir, she's not answering, agents are on their way and the ones already there are looking for her already. Everyone is looking for her. We're going to find her," Tom told him.

"What is going on? Did you find the people responsible?" Abby asked running into the room with Grace on her hip.

"We're finding out," Fitz told her taking Grace.

DC police had been on the scene with the FBI, Army, and many other agencies trying to put out the fire and find people from inside all day and night.

"Tom, I need to get back to the White House. I need to help them find her. I know she's in there!" Fitz screamed.

"Sir, it's not safe. The building is still on fire. They are going to find her. She's probably just at her dress fitting, sir."

"If she was, she'd be answering her phone."

The fire kept getting smaller and smaller since the bomb was not that big of an explosion. Only the Oval and the waiting area had been erupted in flames. Cyrus's office was still intact.

"Captain! I think I found someone!" one of the firefighters yelled. Several firefighters came running over towards him removing the debris that was in the way. They found a woman's foot lightly moving outside of the debris. "Holy shit!"

"What is it, Reed?"

"That's… shit… that's Olivia Pope! It's… she's…"

"The President's girlfriend."

"Don't just stand there, you twit!" The captain yelled at them. "Get her up!"

Fitz sat with Grace on his lap asleep on the couch. He'd been getting updates from everyone every half hour on the status of the fire and who sent the bomb. Nearly eleven in the morning, Tom came in for an update.

"Sir," he made his presence known with a smile on his face.

"Anything?"

"They found her. Air Force One is ready when you are."

"Let's move. Is she alive?"

"She's unconscious but alive."

"Get Abby and let's go."

Fitz, Abby and the agents ran to the airport getting on the plane to go. They got to the hospital getting to Olivia faster than possible.

"Let me see her!"

"Sir, she's unconscious. She's going to be out for a while."

"Just let me see her."

The doctor let Fitz into her room and left them alone. He took her hand and kissed it sitting down in the chair beside her, in for a long night.


	29. Scared Shitless

"You not sleeping is not going to do anyone any good."

Fitz looked up from Olivia to see Abby standing in the doorway of the hospital room.

"She's been out for three days. She should be awake by now," Fitz told her squeezing Olivia's hand.

"Well she doesn't sleep either. Maybe she's catching up on the past few years of sleep she's missed. She'll wake up when she wants to wake up. In the mean time we just need to be patient and wait for that to happen."

"I've been patient for three days. Olivia loves to test me," he said before turning back to Olivia. "Is that what this is? Is this a test, Olivia? How much longer before I pass?"

"Fitz, she's not testing anyone. She's unconscious. You'd be too if you were sitting there and a bomb went off."

"It was supposed to be me."

"Don't start the pity shit with me. Whoever threw the bomb wasn't intending for you to get hurt; the entire world knew where you were at. People know Olivia is living in the White House but who would expect her to be in the Oval on a Saturday when you aren't there? The person who did this was only trying to scare you."

"Well I'm scared alright."

"You're scared shitless."

Both Fitz and Abby looked back to see Olivia wide awake.

"You scared me shitless, Olivia." Fitz stood up and kissed her grabbing her hand tighter than he had. "You can't do that to me."

"Glad to see you're awake, Liv. I'll go get a doctor," Abby told them stepping into the hallway.

"How long have I been out?" Liv asked as she tried to sit up staring at Fitz.

"Three days. Three very extremely long days."

"You haven't shaved. Go shave please."

"I'll do that later. How do you feel right now?"

"I have a headache and I'm starving. Where's Grace?"

"She's with Cyrus at his house."

"How bad is the damage?"

"Don't worry about that. Let's let the doctor check you out and see what's happening."

"Seriously Fitz, I want to know how bad it is. Is there anything left?"

"Only the Oval and Charlotte's desk are gone. They managed to get the fire out sooner than they thought they could."

Olivia closed her eyes and laid her head back. "I'm fine, Fitz. Stop freaking out," she told him sensing his insecurity.

"It's not your fault. You can stop thinking that it is. It's not your fault that the Oval isn't standing anymore," he told her. "I'm going to go find out where that doctor and Abby are."

Fitz moved out of the room letting Olivia's agent inside.

"I told you…"

"Daniel, I really don't want to hear 'I told you so' right now. I know I should have taken those death threats more seriously. But come on, they were written in crayon. And it looked like a two-year-old did that. Plus, if I took every death threat I get seriously, I'd never leave my apartment. What kind of life is that?"

"Ma'am, we will have to step up security. Not only for your sake but for his and the children as well."

"Don't do that. He'll get suspicious and start to worry even more. You and I both know that it was just a minor incident."

"The Oval isn't there anymore Ms. Pope. This is bigger than what we thought. Now I took what you wanted before and look where that got us. You're in a hospital bed!"

"DANIEL!" Fitz stepped in behind him hearing him yell at Olivia. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Sir… I'm sorry I just…"

"Don't apologize, Daniel," Olivia butted in. "He's right, Fitz. I shouldn't have been in the Oval. It's not my office. I just felt a bit closer to you when you aren't there when I'm in the Oval."

"Well, he doesn't need to yell at you for that," Fitz scolded. "The doctor's on his way in. Here, I brought you some juice and crackers."

Daniel went out of the room leaving Fitz sitting on the bed facing her.

"From now on, you go wherever I go. If I go to Mexico, you go to Mexico, got it?"

"I don't think that's going to work. I still have a business to run."

"It was worth a shot."

"Good try though. And I've decided on something."

"And what's that?"

"I can't wait to marry you."

"Me neither."

"Good, so it's settled. We do it now."

"Wait, what?"

"Call a justice of the peace or a priest or someone! I won't wait any longer to marry you."

"Liv, it's just a few more weeks. You wanted the big wedding and all that. A few more weeks won't change anything."

"Are you saying you don't want to marry me again?"

"Of course not. I'm saying that we can wait a few more weeks."

"I've been out for three days. Come on, Fitz. I don't want to wait any longer. We can still do the wedding in a few weeks but I want to marry you now. This can be just you and me and Abby as our witness. Are you really going to make me pull out that card?"

"Liv, please don't…."

"I nearly died! What if they don't miss next time? What if they put a bullet through my head? What if I get hit by a car crossing the street? What if…."

"OKAY! YOU WIN! I'll call David to come here as soon as he can. Just please stop talking about you dying."

"Thank you. So let's get this show on the road."


	30. End

"Well, Mrs. Grant, are you happy now?"

"Perfectly happy. I know this isn't exactly what you were hoping for but we can still have the wedding in a few weeks. Thank you for marrying me today"

Fitz smirked and kissed her quick. "I'd marry you anytime."

"Let's just move straight to Vermont. I'll take the kids up there and get everything ready. The can start school in the fall and get them settled."

"Sounds like a plan."


End file.
